Would it kill NBC to ease delay a bit?

[pokerfan]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/13/SPN112AJUT.DTL

Gwen Knapp

Have a lot of people been coming to work bleary-eyed this week? Blame it on NBC. The Olympics are keeping viewers up past midnight, which is unavoidable on the East Coast, but not here in the West.

The men's 400-meter freestyle relay, one of the greatest races in Olympic history, didn't appear here until almost 11:30 p.m Sunday. It also appeared at 11:30 in the East, but it was shown live there. Here, it was on tape, held for three hours.

A lot of people have expressed frustration that the Games' major events aren't airing live in the West. I'm not asking for that. I understand that NBC has to appease sponsors, so prime-time scheduling trumps all other considerations. Besides, I'm well-schooled in the ancient Olympic game of "Don't tell me, don't tell me."

But why do we have to wait an entire three hours? Why not scramble the tape a little, so that the best events have aired before 11 p.m.? Or start the telecast two hours behind the East, at 7 p.m. Pacific instead of 8?

An NBC spokesman couldn't really answer the questions, although he did talk about the importance of prime time. Last time I checked, though, prime time ended at 11 p.m. The West Coast telecast of the premier events falls well outside that range.

This isn't merely an annoyance. It's bad business. NBC stations are cleaning up in the ratings, so they can't see the problem. But the next generation of Olympic viewers has gone to bed before some of the best events ended. For the kids in the East, nothing could be done. But West Coast youngsters were kept waiting for something that already happened.

The commissioners of U.S. pro sports have taken heat for the lateness of their night games, on the theory that they are excluding kids when, for example, a World Series game starts at 8:30 p.m. on the East Coast. But that's done to accommodate live coverage when people are done working in the Pacific time zone, not to set up a tape that also will run late.

Besides, baseball runs almost every day for six months a year, and the NBA and NFL also have ample time to present their product to kids. Michael Phelps and his ilk are the sports equivalent of Halley's Comet.

NBC spent months promoting the Games, repeatedly running an ad that showed Phelps consuming a cafeteria's worth of food. They were fun spots, but ultimately, the thing that sells the Olympics is the Olympics. The exhilaration of watching that 400 freestyle relay could have hooked some kids for life.

Sure, they could have gotten up the next morning and watched a replay on NBC's Web site - but that's not the same thing, and the network knows it. In fact, it banks on the fact that viewers do not care for leftovers.

When I asked why the Opening Ceremonies couldn't have been shown live for the people who wanted it that way (and devoted a lot of energy to finding international feeds online), the spokesman explained the network's research on this issue. Apparently, people get really mad if they can't sit down at 8 p.m., after work and dinner, and watch the spectacle with the belief that it is "an aggregate experience." In other words, everyone in their surrounding area is seeing the event with fresh eyes at the same time.

They get angry if they think they are being served leftovers, even if the food looks and tastes exactly the same.

It's irrational, but so is not watching swimming for four years and then becoming enraptured for a solid week. The Olympics are different from any other sporting event, and so the coverage is, too.

It has gotten better recently, with fewer features and more intelligent commentary. (Someone told me at the Atlanta Games in 1996 that the swimming analysts were advised to talk in generalities and not explain the sport or the race in much detail.)

NBC is still too smitten with its graphic artistry. The most distracting is the U.S. flag banner that routinely overlays Phelps' lane as he pushes off a wall in the lead. His turns and push-offs are spectacular, especially in the freestyle, yet he disappears under that banner, preventing fans from seeing exactly how he jets off the wall. Replays show the push-offs, with vivid underwater footage, but in real time, the race is distorted. The network needs to find another, subtler way to show who holds the lead.

If it can be done while some of us are awake, all the better.

E-mail Gwen Knapp at [e-mail].

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[itsrobert]

1. Exactly.

Exactly. NBC could easily make two different broadcast for East and West Coast. And it would probably enhance their ratings on both coast.

[pokerfan]

3. And TWO (!) commercial breaks during the 1500?!

It's only a 14 minute race for crying out loud!

Somebody has got to take the Games away from NBC.

[SoCalDem]

4. We need a Public Event channel devoted to stuff like this

Airing LIVE.. Isn't it amazing? We have all the advanced technology in the world, and yet are held hostage by Budweiser/Procter & Gamble/Visa etc..

Supposedly, the airwaves belong to us, and yet corporations dictate everything about HOW we watch, what we watch and when we watch..

[iamjoy]

2. Yeah, They Tick Off Me Too

I am on the east coast and thought they were actually doing pretty well this year, showing us more live events. The 12 hour time difference with Bejing is at work here, so I figure it isn't NBCs fault the women's gymnastics events ended after midnight my time. I thought, well, at least on the West Coast they can go to bed at a decent hour. I didn't realize they were making ya'll wait up late too.

I remember 1996 when the games were in Atlanta and they were still showing the big events up until midnight.